On Board Compressor

So for Christmas my wife bought me the Firestone Industrial on board air compressor (part #2158 its the standard duty compressor) to go along with the Firestone Industrial Airbags that I have on the truck.

Install was fairly easy and straight forward. I have had the bags for a couple years so it was just a matter of rerouting the lines (used to exit out of the rear license plate bolt holes), and installing compressor and switch/guage.

Next came figuring out where to bring the airline inside the cab without making any new holes. There was a grommet under the front driver side floorboard that seemed to be the best place.

After that I had to route the line back to the bags and to the supplied T connector as I got the single switch/guage so the bags would be evenly inflated (no side to side control just front/rear for leveling with a load. The T-connector was placed just to the rear of the fuel tank and centered.

The airline from the compressor to the switch was run in the door channel on the drivers side and then run next to the line from the bags to the switch. I just kept them in the same channel that the other cable was already run in.

The lines are connected to theback of the switch and prssure gauge.

The compressor was installed under the rear seat on the drivers side. In my truck the bottom of the seat goes up towards the front seat and then the seat back lays down. Then there is a spring loaded cover that opens and is where I installed the compressor and relay. I placed it here to keep the compressor clean and dry (not necessary but how I wanted it)

The power line was too short to even make it up under the dash (it was close but the crew cab was longer and I went a little round about ways) so I ended up tying into the always hot power line of the power seat switch (which was real close to where the wire ended anyway.

Final step was to wire in the switch. The wire from the relay to the switch was long enough to make it so that was a simple plug in (white wire). The other white wire just needed to be grounded. This left the light in the gauge. I ran one of the black wires to a wire behind the climate controls (the one connected to the lights). This was done by turning the lights on and then with a light probe finding which one dimmed with the dimmer switch. Not too hard to find just had to poke a few wires:gasp:.The other black wire was then grounded.

Fired it up and works like a champ. Now I can level the truck back out when loaded anywhere instead of having to be at home with my garage compressor.

Looking good!!! I was going to do air bags, but I didn't like all the chances for problems down the road. (seals, fittings, air lines etc.) You did a very nice job on the install though, nice and clean!

Nice! How loud is it in the cab when the electric compressor is running?

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I dont find it to be very loud at all (maybe I'm going deaf:neutral. Its not automatic so its only going to run for the short time I hit the switch to level a load. I have to chase down a very slow leak somewhere along the way. I dont think I had enough soap in the spray bottle when I hit all the connections after install. loses about 1 psi a day, so right now I just give the gauge a quick glance when I jump in. My normal running pressure is 10 psi.

Looking good!!! I was going to do air bags, but I didn't like all the chances for problems down the road. (seals, fittings, air lines etc.) You did a very nice job on the install though, nice and clean!

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I have had the airbags with no compressor for roughly 2 years and never had a leak. would check every few months and bags were always good. small leak now but overall so far maintenance has been zero.